Can I ask the players here what their inactive sims usually do? I know that most people worry only about their controlled wards, but... Surely someone noticed something remarkable or interesting. For example, I noticed that many residents of my town have a zeal to become musicians. And no, it's not about a career. Many characters in my game acquire various musical instruments, even without any artistic traits. Once it even turned into a problem when sims started to gather in a bunch and arrange improvised concerts. My game is bad at digesting a large number of characters and too much dynamics, so I banned this action for autonomy. However, the characters don't stop giving up and again and again buy musical instruments and play separately from each other, but almost throughout the town. Why? Why don't they want to communicate with each other? Why don't they pay attention to the others usual objects? And, after all, why do they have such ugly guitars, and since when did the game start giving out this disgusting leopard design?! (forgive me, fans of the leopard guitars)

In my game, there are a few store objects, but they are not in competition with the standard game objects. Seriously, as if they were created by completely different developers. I used to complain that the guests in my house drank my tea endlessly. Now the tea tables are on the community lot and I'm not worried. Instead, now all the residents are interested in my car and everyone tries to polish and fix it...

Yeah, my inactives loooooove their musical instruments as well. I'm generally okay with this because my sims usually play instruments and have lots of people around town to jam with.

What I don't like is how much inactives love their laptops. Even the children acquire them, almost as soon as they age up it seems! Sometimes I just want to flush all the laptops in town, which is how much I hate them, except the sims would just end up getting new ones. The irony is that I love my own laptop dearly.

Inactives don't acquire sketch pads on their own, but if they have them they will usually prefer them over laptops, and they will interact with other sims by asking if they can sketch them, so that's pretty cute, and preferable to playing computer games at the park. Sketch pads are cheap so I tend to buy several and have my sims gift them, or get them for inactives when I rotate to their households.

Photo booth. Usually they are queued up to woohoo in the photobooth. I have one behind the grocery in Sunset Valley and when my sim is on that big grocery/theater/bookstore lot, the woohoo chimes are sounding constantly. During the evening, I get about 50 sims on that lot at once (I guess because the lot is so big) and it's all photo booth woohoo and hoards of sims watching guitars. Sometimes I wish for more mean-spirited or hot-headed sims so I could get more fights or something. Everybody is having just too good of a time to have any drama.

For store stuff, the basketball hoop seems to be the most popular in my towns. Inactive sims will go onto other residential lots, ungreeted, even go to unoccupied lots, to use the basketball hoop. There were two athletic guys next door to my sims, and one or both of them are always running past my house to the house on the OTHER side of me to go directly into the backyard to play. They would come into MY yard until I put a gate that I could lock. If there is a hoop on a community lot, my sim can't even have a conversation with somebody without it being interrupted for a basketball challenge.

But no matter what, no matter how many fun things there are to do on a lot, guitars always win.

indignantgirl wrote: ↑

February 22nd, 2021, 3:02 pm

What I don't like is how much inactives love their laptops. Even the children acquire them, almost as soon as they age up it seems! Sometimes I just want to flush all the laptops in town, which is how much I hate them, except the sims would just end up getting new ones. The irony is that I love my own laptop dearly.

Once I removed all the laptops in my town, because there is nothing for them to do there: all my games have a some entourage of old times. And you know what? Surprisingly, it worked, permanently! I don't remember exactly, but I may have edited the laptop usage settings, in the list of objects via the Retuner.

indignantgirl wrote: ↑

February 22nd, 2021, 3:02 pm

Photo booth. Usually they are queued up to woohoo in the photobooth. I have one behind the grocery in Sunset Valley and when my sim is on that big grocery/theater/bookstore lot, the woohoo chimes are sounding constantly. During the evening, I get about 50 sims on that lot at once (I guess because the lot is so big) and it's all photo booth woohoo and hoards of sims watching guitars. Sometimes I wish for more mean-spirited or hot-headed sims so I could get more fights or something. Everybody is having just too good of a time to have any drama.

Well, that's not bad. I was already thinking about putting Woohooer in my game, because it's better to let the characters be busy with each other than endlessly trying to become musicians. Although... In my game, this is a problem, but it concerns the car that needs to be repaired. I was a little discouraged when not my sims got into my car By the way, many of my sims have sharp negative traits. I guess I also don't have enough aggression and drama

Ah yes, how I forgot about the most annoying interaction. In the past, Sims would endlessly give each other flowers, and each time they would get excited about the bouquet like idiots. Fortunately, the question now is whether it's possible to keep the sims busy with something really useful.

You can always use Retuner to disable autonomy for a specific action if you want. You'd still be able to tell your sims to do it, but others around town wouldn't be able to on their own. Or you could change the advertised fun output: sims are always looking for ways to have fun, and they'll usually pick whatever objects are available.

This is especially relevant because whenever the game calculates their needs, which is any time they become simulated (your sims visit an inactive's house, an inactive gets pushed to a community lot, a sim gets reset), their fun bar is set to neutral. This is in contrast to the other needs, which are either set to full or close enough (bladder, hygiene, social) or change according to what the game thinks is appropriate for the time of day (hunger, energy). So any time an inactive sim initially shows up on your screen, the chances are good that the fun bar is the one most in need of attention.

I think one of the reasons I'm seeing laptops so much is I have a mod that pushes more autonomous writing. I was reading another thread and I saw that purchasing a laptop is part of the "writing" push from SP. I'll probably have to do some poking around in Retuner to see what I can do about that. I'm also trying to figure out how to make less (or no) autonomous "make inappropriate forum post". Inappropriate is one of my favorite traits but I can't let my active households have computers anymore because I'm sick of canceling that action. Sims will repeatedly try to make a forum post on a computer that is already in use by someone else and then have tantrum after tantrum because they aren't able to. That's a little TOO compulsive of behavior.

One more thing that sims love: the sandbox. It's one of my favorites! In my Legacy save I have a huge, wealthy household, and a house with everything fun that sims could ever want, and they all just fight over the sandbox! It was literally always full, with other sims toe-tapping next to it. I notice it's the same on community lots. Although I think I had to use Retuner to allow all ages to use it, but it was worth it because sims will talk to each other and build relationship while playing together. I love seeing elders building sandcastles with their grandkids.

puzzlezaddict wrote: ↑

February 22nd, 2021, 5:29 pm

You can always use Retuner to disable autonomy for a specific action if you want. You'd still be able to tell your sims to do it, but others around town wouldn't be able to on their own. Or you could change the advertised fun output: sims are always looking for ways to have fun, and they'll usually pick whatever objects are available.

I rebuilt quite a large part of the game, and now I can't imagine how it can be played by default. But I'm still surprised by the choice of some sims. Why do only children buy baseballs for outdoor games? It would make more sense if adult athlete sims did it, too. Why do many artists rarely approach the easel, although this is their main skill? Although, I think the problem here is in the development of the game. Very few items are allowed in the character's luggage. They can easily carry guitars, synthesizers, and drum kits, but a folding easel or chessboard is something beyond the pale. Although, you know, I remembered something. I banned picnics for automatic use at the very beginning of the game. Characters with no end took free portions of food and gaining weight. Maybe I should give this opportunity back

indignantgirl wrote: ↑

February 22nd, 2021, 9:37 pm

I think one of the reasons I'm seeing laptops so much is I have a mod that pushes more autonomous writing. I was reading another thread and I saw that purchasing a laptop is part of the "writing" push from SP.

I'd like to try using this notepad for writing, but I'm not sure that the game will allow sims to do this autonomously.

By the way, with regards to the sandbox. I'd like this opportunity to be on the beach, but, again, for some reason, only children can do this, although Retuner claims otherwise.

For sandboxes, in my experience, it needs to be "used" first. As in, a child must have played in it once to "unlock" it, and then forever and ever it can be used by anybody. Even when I put it in my inventory for storage to move to a new house, or rearrange things in my parks, the sandbox can still be used by everybody when I place it back on the ground.

Sara_Darkees wrote: ↑

February 23rd, 2021, 3:17 am

I'd like to try using this notepad for writing, but I'm not sure that the game will allow sims to do this autonomously.

I have that notepad and sims won't use it autonomously, at least not in my game. I originally got the mod so my writers could work on their books without having to have their laptops with them all the time. I thought it would be like the sketch pad, which sims use autonomously to build their painting skill. They LOVE sketching, and I have a mod so kids can use the sketch pads too. So, yeah, I was hoping the scribbling pad would work the same, but even active sims won't touch it unless I tell them to.

indignantgirl wrote: ↑

February 23rd, 2021, 7:24 am

I have that notepad and sims won't use it autonomously, at least not in my game.

There, by default, self-use is prohibited, besides, it gives -10 to the fun, so the object for the characters is really not attractive.

indignantgirl wrote: ↑

February 23rd, 2021, 7:24 am

They LOVE sketching, and I have a mod so kids can use the sketch pads too. So, yeah, I was hoping the scribbling pad would work the same, but even active sims won't touch it unless I tell them to.

I'm glad to know that. I have no problem to buy the necessary items myself and distribute them to almost the entire town. The problem is that I don't seem to have an addon for this drawing pad

The sketchbook comes from the University expansion pack